A large number of home and building fires could be prevented if stopped from proliferating during their early stages. For example, many kitchen grease fires proliferate when they are unattended, but could have been extinguished when they were contained within the cooking utensil. Similarly, fires in enclosed spaces such as offices are more effectively contained and extinguished when fire extinguishing material is applied immediately upon generation of significant heat.
A large array of liquid-, gas-, and powder-charged extinguishers, automatic sprinkler systems, and gas-charged systems are conventionally available for fire fighting purposes, and many of them are aimed at extinguishing fires early on in an automatic fashion. Frequently, however, such automatic systems are relatively expensive so that it is uncommon, for instance, to find a gas-charged system within the home cooking area, or sprinkler systems within the home. Apart from initial expense, automatic fire extinguishing systems of the gas- and liquid-charged types require periodic maintenance whose expense and administrative efforts are frequently beyond the means of home owners. Such follow-on requirements are not limited to homeowners, and impose burdens on commercial building owners.
It has been known to enclose a conventional powderized fire extinguishing material such as Purple K or ABC within expanded polystyrene foam or other container material which melts in the presence of heat. A primary disadvantage of many such systems, however, can be that the melted material coagulates on the floor or furniture below the extinguisher, and is accordingly difficult to clean. This is particularly the case when the melted container material mixes with the powderized fire extinguishing material.
Apart from the untidiness created by such earlier powderized systems, they have often been regarded as unsightly, such as in the form of panels which adhere to ceilings or walls. Such aesthetic problems may account, at least in part, for the less than overwhelming reception of these types of powderized systems by the public in the past.